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Monday, January 30, 2012

In January, the Luxury Homes Networking breakfast club was
hosted by Michael Crane of Fidelity
Bank Mortgage and Alex McGraw
and Associates of Harry Norman
Realtors at one of the lovely estates in the Greystone
Subdivision in the heart of Milton. This
beautiful European styled estate is nestled on 22 acres which includes
luxurious pool, private 18 hole golf course, tennis courts, private stocked
fishing pond, walking trails, basketball court, regulation sized football field
and baseball field, and more. The featured speaker for the event was Steve Palms,
President of Smart Numbers> Steve discussed
the 2012 real estate market: “2012 –
Expectations of the Real World”.

Senator
John Albers, Deputy Whip of the 56th District in Georgia, spoke
at the Business Connection in January (prior to the Georgia legislative session
starting). Along with being a member of
the Economic Development, Education and Youth, Ethics, and Finance Committees, he is the Vice Chairman of the Finance,
Public Safety, and Science and Technology Committees.

Georgia has a balanced budget with no debt. It has the lowest cost per government for all
fifty states. The state grew by 18%
adding another congressional district.

Senator
Albers is working on a bill to raise the dropout rate in high school. Students who don’t finish high school have a
higher chance of ending up in jail than high school graduates do. Plus he’s working on state charter
schools.

In tax reform, Georgia is
moving away from income/capital gains structure to sales tax usage based on the
economy (like Texas and Florida).

As an
incentive to establish and keep jobs in Georgia, we may need to take the tax
off energy for businesses.

There’s a
need for retraining workers for the technology jobs in Georgia. Students should focus on science, technology,
engineering, and math. Currently, there
are 5,400 open technology jobs in Georgia.

They are also working on a military bill of rights to help soldiers. The University of Phoenix enables soldiers
to go to school from anywhere in the world with 25% off tuition and free books
for the military.

Friday, January 20, 2012

The December unemployment rate in Georgia fell to 9.7% which is down from the previous month by .1% and the previous year by .7% . At the same time last year, the unemployment rate in Georgia was 10.4%. In December, there were 600 new construction jobs and 400 new manufacturing jobs. New construction jobs have not increased that much since 2003. Information services, trade and transportation also had gains in the job market. The national unemployment rate is 8.5%.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

January’s ABWA speaker is Heather Herrig, from Every
Last Detail Events, Topic: “Effective
Communication in a Digital Age”. The next ABWA Crabapple Chapter meeting
will be on January 17th (third Tuesday of January) at The Barn (770-650-9838)
behind the Fickle Pickle, 1085 Canton Street, Roswell, GA 30075 www.ficklepicklecafe.com. Networking starts at 6:00 PM with
dinner and speaker following at 6:30 PM. For more information on the ABWA Crabapple Chapter, email pam.santoro@harrynorman.com or go to www.abwacrabapple.com.